The city Planning Commission will hold a public hearing Wednesday to consider lifting a ban on tattoo parlors that has lasted 46 years.

A combination of things -- a change in state law and a slew of lawsuits against other local cities -- has triggered a change to regulate rather than ban an industry that has been branded as unsanitary.

"We had an ordinance that prohibited tattoo parlors, but we never addressed sanitary conditions," said city attorney Stuart E. Katz about the 1961 law that banned the parlors.

Every city in Hampton Roads except Newport News allows them and local counties, such as Gloucester, York and Isle of Wight, permit them in certain commercial districts.

Tattoos are becoming more popular, according to a 2006 study by the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology that found 24 percent of Americans between 18 and 50 are tattooed. That's up from 2003, when 16 percent had at least one tattoo.

To clean up the industry, Virginia lawmakers passed a licensing requirement in 2002 that put stricter health and sanitary rules on tattoo parlors, said Mary Broz-Vaughan of the state Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation.

In Virginia, 163 parlors are now licensed and registered with the state.

If Newport News allows them, a tattoo parlor owner will have to get a permit, and the Planning Commission and City Council will conduct public hearings.

The parlors also would have to follow a series of health and sanitary requirements to keep the building and tattooing equipment clean. In addition, tattoo artists have to post health department certificates and keep detailed records of the customers they serve.

Health concerns hover over the tattoo industry even though in the past 20 years less than 1 percent of people infected with hepatitis said they were tattooed, according to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention.

"They are breaking the skin surface," said Dr. David Trump, director of the Peninsula Health District, who helped the city draft the new regulations. "There are always risks of infections."

Even with the sanitary advancements, tattoo parlor owners know how hard it is to shake a bad reputation.

"It used to be for the rough necks, the bikers, the ex-convicts, the troublemakers," said Doug Kahler, who runs CJ's Tattoo on Mercury Boulevard in Hampton and last year alone inked $180,000 worth of tattoos. "Now average people want a tattoo."

Kahler has $5,000 worth of tattoos on his body.

"Getting tattoos can be very addictive, " he is quick to admit. "I just kept going. And I am still going. You can redo them, cover and recover them. It takes a while to run out of space." *

TATTOO RULES

Here are some of the proposed rules for anyone who might want to open a tattoo parlor in Newport News:

* Artists must have a state license

* Customers must be 18 or older

* Smoking, eating, drinking and applying makeup is prohibited

* Windows, floors, walls and ceilings need to be in clean and sanitary condition